Companies gear up to tackle rise in data theft

With the corporate sector witnessing a rise in data theft cases, several companies are measures to arrest this growth.

An officer from the cyber police station at Bandra-Kurla Complex, who spoke to Hindustan Times on the condition anonymity said, “A rising number of organisations that have sensitive data in their networks are installing anti-spy softwares to ensure that their employees are not passing on sensitive data.”

According to cyber crime statistics released by the Mumbai police, only one case of data theft was registered in 2009.

In 2010, eight cases were lodged and in 2011, four cases have been registered till date of which three cases were reported in August.

Cyber experts and police believe these numbers do not reflect the depth of the problem as in many cases companies do not register a complaint for the fear that it might impact their reputation.

The cyber police officer cited a case registered in August in which a doctor, who was working with a renowned chain of hospitals in Mumbai, was arrested after the management realised he was passing on sensitive information to a company he owned.

The officer said, “The company [that owned the chain of hospitals] installed an anti-spying software after they realised that data was being transferred from their network. They traced the source to the doctor in question. He was arrested on charges of criminal breach of trust and under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.”

Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner of police (crime) said, “Proprietors dealing with sensitive data should first check the antecedents of a person before employing him/her. Using an anti-spying software will help companies find out if any unauthorised data transfer is taking place.”